Former governors Olusegun Osoba and Godswill Akpabio have praised President Muhammadu Buhari for honouring the late Chief MKO Abiola and declaring June 12 as Democracy Day, Punchng report.
The duo spoke to our correspondents during the maiden Democracy Day celebration in Abuja on Wednesday, where Buhari renamed the Abuja National Stadium Moshood Abiola National Stadium.
Ex-Ogun State governor Osoba said with the conferment of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic on Abiola by the President, the deceased had indirectly been recognised as an ex-President of Nigeria.
He said, “I was the governor of Ogun State with a President from my area; we made entreaties that he should do something for Abiola, but it did not make any impact. You can see why we are grateful to Buhari who recognised the significance of June 12. The significance of the day is recognition of the supreme price paid by Abiola, which is making us enjoy democracy that is now 20 years old.
“One of my own benefitted from the demise of Abiola and he became President. But here is Buhari recognising June 12 as Democracy Day because all Nigerians voted for Abiola. Indirectly, he (Buhari) has accepted Abiola as an ex-President of this country by awarding the highest honour of Grand Commander of Federal Republic, which is reserved for presidents.
“I give the highest respect to President Buhari. Because we now enjoy democracy, we must forever be grateful to Abiola. He suffered, he was put in isolated incarceration and he died. There is no better price that anyone can pay. Our democracy will always be better. We have started and it is going well.”
He added, “As a founding member of the APC, we will work hard to do a review of the Electoral Act. We must make it digital so that there will be less rigging. If the banks can use Point of Sales machines successfully and generate alert for customers, there is no reason why we cannot transmit results through a digital system as soon as we vote so that we can have results immediately in this era of Information Technology. That is part of entrenching sustainable, clean, free and respected democracy in Nigeria.”
Former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Akpabio, said the recognition given Abiola had shown that his sacrifice and death for Nigeria’s democracy was not in vain.
He said, “ We should be proud of Buhari for doing this. This posthumous recognition means a lot for Nigeria. Today is a great day for the country. This is to show that Abiola’s sacrifice for the benefit of Nigeria will never be forgotten. We are grateful to Buhari for this.”
